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Cops yesterday were probing whether one of Boston’s most infamous reputed gang kingpins was the intended target of the bullet that tragically killed a beautiful, young Manhattan woman outside a seedy Beantown house party.

Chiara Levin, 22, a personal assistant to a Manhattan public-relations guru, was shot in the head while ducking for cover in a black Cadillac Escalade when gunfire erupted early Saturday in one of Boston’s most notorious neighborhoods, police said.

Local thug Jason Barbosa later strolled into Boston Medical Center with a gunshot wound to his shoulder.

Police now suspect that Barbosa, 18, may have been involved in the gun battle that ended the charmed, promising life of Levin, described by family and friends as a “brilliant” and “gorgeous” college grad who traveled the world and spoke four languages.

Barbosa is refusing to talk to cops.

Probers also are focusing on why it took so long for Levin to be brought to the hospital.

The hospital is less than 10 minutes away from the scene, but Levin wasn’t brought in until about 40 minutes after the shooting, investigators said.

Her grieving family, which hails from the small town of Danville, Ky., remained stunned.

“My mother said she was bright and safe in any situation,” Levin’s shattered sister, Elena, 18, told The Post. “She hopped from place to place. She didn’t have fear . . . Any sort of argument, she’d be the mediator.”

Police officials yesterday said the five people in the SUV with Levin at the time – two women and three men – were cooperating.

Cops revealed that the SUV stopped after driving a few blocks right after the shooting and let out one of the men before it continued to the hospital.

The vivacious beauty had recently moved into an apartment on Maiden Lane in lower Manhattan after taking a job with Judson Management.

She was in Boston to celebrate her great aunt’s 90th birthday.

On Friday night, she went with the two friends to the popular Boston hangout Caprice. Around closing time at 2 a.m., she and her pals groused that they still wanted to party, and a couple of men who overheard them offered to take them to the house party, police said.

After they arrived at the raucous party, a fight broke out in the kitchen, one source said.

Levin and her group decided to leave, and as they got into the Escalade at around 3:20 a.m., gunfire erupted, cops said.

She arrived at the hospital at about 4 a.m. and was pronounced dead an hour and a half later, officials said.